Monday, September 26, 2011

The mulberries continue to ripen, and the possum doesn’t seem to be eating very many. There are flying foxes out there every night though. There is still plenty of fruit on the tree, and I am picking about half a kilo a day. I don’t actually like mulberries, so I am planning to make jam to give away.

I’ve never really made jam before, but it doesn’t seem that hard. I had a practice last week with strawberries, and worked out the basics. One batch was like strawberry syrup, so I used Jamsetta for the next lot and it set really well. All the fruit floats to the top of the jar though, and I’m not sure what causes that or how to prevent it. I’ve decided to like my jam that way- you can have chunky or not chunky from the same jar.

1 kilo of mulberries, 1 kilo of sugar, juice from 2 lemons looks like this at the start:

It’s pretty interesting to watch as all the juice comes out of the fruit and it starts boiling up. The instructions say use a big, deep saucepan and you really do need it. The fruit and sugar boils up a long way. I was surprised by the colour that the mulberries turned – a rich deep red. I was expecting more of a purple-y colour. The spoon is now red, it didn’t wash out.

I need to get more jars. I’m not running out of mulberries any time soon.